Here is a look at NEC from EVB's founders eyes.
Gross and Vendetta decided to come to the house early to get a few last minute casuals in. The salt at times seemed real from what we could tell. I did take Spanish in school, however, some of the words they were using were not covered by Sister Ann at Holy Spirit High School. I am sure you can guess why. The matches seemed pretty even and eventually we had the shut the two down or they would have played all night. That wouldn't have worked with the 6am departure time we had. Especially since Gross plays his controller like Billy Joel plays piano at Madison Square Garden.
We loaded up the Truckster and headed down to pick up Obamanatti. His brother, Big D, decided that he did not want to listen to all his trash talk on the trip down and took a flight out a day earlier. That made Vendetta the brunt of the ribbing. Everything goes well at the airport minus me forgetting to take the laptop out of one of our bags. Of course they pull me aside and do all sorts of swabs and whatnot to the computer. Evilette didn't seem thrilled with my jokes about them only finding bodily fluids being on the laptop. The guy seemed entertained and he probably deals with jerks day in and day out, so this may have been a highlight for him.
Before boarding we see K-Brad, the ever popular fighting game player, preparing for the same flight. We offered Brad a ride to the venue and he accepted. Cool. Will be good to get to know him. As we boarded I could see some fear in the eyes of Vendetta. It was explained to us that Vendetta doesn't like take offs or landings. Good to know for trolling purposes later.
The plane exited the gate on time and headed towards the runway. We were off!! Oh wait. Back to the gate where the pilot explained that he heard a funny noise somewhere in the front landing gear and that he was going to have the mechanic check it. 15 minutes later the pilot informs us that they could not really see anything wrong and that we were basically going to give it a go. Ummmm, ok. It's only the landing gear. Evilette makes a great meme depicting a plane with landing gear on fire. Vendetta finds no humor in that.
Flight goes wonderful and we land in Philly on time. Landing gear does not fail. We pick up team member Milky Situation, grab K-Brad, and head over to the venue. The ride takes 20 minutes and we get a few good pictures for "Bodied" when the guys fell asleep. We shoot into the casino tower side and check into our rooms. Super pleased with the size and cleanliness of the suites. They were almost too roomy and felt like we needed to go to IKEa and get more furniture.
Evilette and I head back to the airport to pick up Noobe. Evilette, being the ever so thoughtful motherly lady that she is, offers a ride to anyone who was stranded waiting for a ride. Burger King and Forever King Jr take us up on the offer since Yomi was delayed and they were all sharing ground transportation. Being supporters of the community, we agreed to pick them up and help them out. This seemed like a great idea until we had to make 11, seriously 11, trips through the terminals in order to locate which side and what area of the airport they were in. Probably one of the top 3 annoying moments of the trip. We load those two up and start some more laps looking for Noobe. Super grateful and pleasant, Burger and Forever made the next 5 laps through the terminal pleasant. Great guys for sure.
We finally see Noobe in all his massiveness, squeeze him into the back of the vehicle and roll back over to the venue. On the ride we offer Burger and Forever some EVB gear, which they gracefully declined. Was worth a shot and a good laugh.... We arrive at the venue once again, change into the full EVB gear, and head down to the casuals area.
First thing we notice about the casuals area was how hot it was in there. This did nothing good for the hygiene of the 400 travelers that were in this area. Oof..... Two suits showed up and I asked them what the deal was. They must have talked to someone and the air conditioning finally came on and made it bearable. However, the lack of casual stations for MKX pushed most of the EVB team back upstairs to the rooms for their own casuals. After hanging around for a bit, I registered and received a wristband that you would get from a block party. I must say I was a little disappointed that I didn't receive some form of fancy badge, but oh well, maybe next year (hint BIGE).
We had a special surprise for the team for the weekend that arrived before the evening ended. We secretly brought in DR Viking for a surprise appearance. He hadn't played in over 6 months after moving away from Versus Gaming and becoming a father to a lovely little girl. We were not expecting much out of his play after the layoff, but he is an EVB family member and he needed a break just as much as the team would be excited to see him. The team was super hype when they finally realized who just walked into the room. Just as we had hoped, Viking brought the good feels to the team.
Evilette and I headed back upstairs and stopped by our teams casuals room and saw that there was some serious MKX going on. I considered playing a bit, but this crew would surely body me in every which way. We called it a night and told the team we would see them in the AM. We could only hope that they did find time to rest before tomorrows pools!
We woke up early enough to hit the closest WaWa for some much needed coffee and bagels. Evilette and I made note that all majors should be required to be located next to a WaWa. I mean, you can only eat so much of that fancy hotel food before you crave something that is truly bad for you and costs 1/10th as much! Food options at a venue surely are a plus in our book. WaWa coffee is like Sonic Fox is to MKX, unbeatable.
Shooting back to the venue we were please to see that our team look well rested and fresh. They were playing casuals in their room and warming up. Perfect! This should make for a successful day. Lets hope that it would translate to some top 8 appearances! We headed downstairs to check out the layout in the main room. It wasn't quite CEO, but it wasn't terrible either. The stage area wasn't as high as you would hope due to the low ceilings in the venue. This made it a little difficult to see the screen from the back of the room. The real problem came when the MKX pools started. There really wasn't much room to maneuver and we found ourselves sometimes walking around the entire room in order to get to a spot that may have been just a few steps the other way. As fast as this event is growing, BIG may need to look at a larger area to host it at. We managed to get settled in and located where all the pools matches would be. It was now time to bring the EVB pain to the pools!
We started out flat......our big guns didn't make it out of the first sets of pools. Big D, hampered by his injured hand, fell victim to death pool #4. (with the likes of Sacky, PL, and a host of others). DR couldn't find his groove and didn't survive his pool. Noobe, who has been playing his best as of late, struggled and was disappointed as well. We were surely disappointed for the group, but they were standing by the other team members offering help where they could. This is what we envisioned when we decided to sponsor a team. Members that support each other through thick and thin.
I was up next for the 2:00pm pools. The 2:00 pm pools that started at 1:45 pm. This wouldn't be the worst thing if they hadn't started making announcements about being disqualified if you were not there to play. A few times I saw entrants making it in just under the wire, narrowly avoiding forfeiture. You would think that a guy could not be disqualified from a 2:00pm pool at 1:55 pm, but it was happening. I should have taken the option of a DQ instead of putting on the horrible display of MKX Mileena that I did. I was torched buy a Jax player that was clearly worse then my sparring partners. I think I need to take a look at playing in the same events that we are sponsoring. It may just be too much to attempt to do both. Evilette seems right on this one!
We gained a little momentum for the latter part of the pools as Milky Situation, Vendetta, and Kitana Prime all advanced out of pools. DR Gross struggled to find his groove and lost to Slayer and Conflict. He was salty in the biggest way. This was the first time that he did not make it out of pools at a major. He also vowed it would be the last. Obamanatti was one win from making it out and was disappointed as well. He was happy that he finished ahead of his brother, Big D, and he was happy to tell him that the entire ride back to the airport.
During pools we were lucky enough to witness one of the biggest upsets in the history of the FGC, IMHO. CR Whiteboy vs Foxy Grandpa was the hypest of hype! Evilette seemed to know this was going to be epic and she decided to film most of the match. This is the footage that we all have watched time and time again. Thank you Evilette for capturing that momentous battle for all the masses to enjoy for years to come. Even though Whiteboy isn't a member of team EVB, he is one of the guys at the local scene that has worked side by side for the past year perfecting his skills at Versus Gaming in Florida. I can still feel the roar of the crowd when Jason hugs the last of life out of Kung Lao. Chants of USA, USA, as players clamored to congratulate Nick on his colossal win.
Please check back for part 2 of EVB Gaming's NEC Trip Report. Still lots of exciting stuff to be written about!
@Bizzle PB @YOMI FOREVER KING @YOMI SLAYER @EVB_VenDeTTa @Big D @Kitana Prime
Gross and Vendetta decided to come to the house early to get a few last minute casuals in. The salt at times seemed real from what we could tell. I did take Spanish in school, however, some of the words they were using were not covered by Sister Ann at Holy Spirit High School. I am sure you can guess why. The matches seemed pretty even and eventually we had the shut the two down or they would have played all night. That wouldn't have worked with the 6am departure time we had. Especially since Gross plays his controller like Billy Joel plays piano at Madison Square Garden.
We loaded up the Truckster and headed down to pick up Obamanatti. His brother, Big D, decided that he did not want to listen to all his trash talk on the trip down and took a flight out a day earlier. That made Vendetta the brunt of the ribbing. Everything goes well at the airport minus me forgetting to take the laptop out of one of our bags. Of course they pull me aside and do all sorts of swabs and whatnot to the computer. Evilette didn't seem thrilled with my jokes about them only finding bodily fluids being on the laptop. The guy seemed entertained and he probably deals with jerks day in and day out, so this may have been a highlight for him.
Before boarding we see K-Brad, the ever popular fighting game player, preparing for the same flight. We offered Brad a ride to the venue and he accepted. Cool. Will be good to get to know him. As we boarded I could see some fear in the eyes of Vendetta. It was explained to us that Vendetta doesn't like take offs or landings. Good to know for trolling purposes later.
The plane exited the gate on time and headed towards the runway. We were off!! Oh wait. Back to the gate where the pilot explained that he heard a funny noise somewhere in the front landing gear and that he was going to have the mechanic check it. 15 minutes later the pilot informs us that they could not really see anything wrong and that we were basically going to give it a go. Ummmm, ok. It's only the landing gear. Evilette makes a great meme depicting a plane with landing gear on fire. Vendetta finds no humor in that.
Flight goes wonderful and we land in Philly on time. Landing gear does not fail. We pick up team member Milky Situation, grab K-Brad, and head over to the venue. The ride takes 20 minutes and we get a few good pictures for "Bodied" when the guys fell asleep. We shoot into the casino tower side and check into our rooms. Super pleased with the size and cleanliness of the suites. They were almost too roomy and felt like we needed to go to IKEa and get more furniture.
Evilette and I head back to the airport to pick up Noobe. Evilette, being the ever so thoughtful motherly lady that she is, offers a ride to anyone who was stranded waiting for a ride. Burger King and Forever King Jr take us up on the offer since Yomi was delayed and they were all sharing ground transportation. Being supporters of the community, we agreed to pick them up and help them out. This seemed like a great idea until we had to make 11, seriously 11, trips through the terminals in order to locate which side and what area of the airport they were in. Probably one of the top 3 annoying moments of the trip. We load those two up and start some more laps looking for Noobe. Super grateful and pleasant, Burger and Forever made the next 5 laps through the terminal pleasant. Great guys for sure.
We finally see Noobe in all his massiveness, squeeze him into the back of the vehicle and roll back over to the venue. On the ride we offer Burger and Forever some EVB gear, which they gracefully declined. Was worth a shot and a good laugh.... We arrive at the venue once again, change into the full EVB gear, and head down to the casuals area.
First thing we notice about the casuals area was how hot it was in there. This did nothing good for the hygiene of the 400 travelers that were in this area. Oof..... Two suits showed up and I asked them what the deal was. They must have talked to someone and the air conditioning finally came on and made it bearable. However, the lack of casual stations for MKX pushed most of the EVB team back upstairs to the rooms for their own casuals. After hanging around for a bit, I registered and received a wristband that you would get from a block party. I must say I was a little disappointed that I didn't receive some form of fancy badge, but oh well, maybe next year (hint BIGE).
We had a special surprise for the team for the weekend that arrived before the evening ended. We secretly brought in DR Viking for a surprise appearance. He hadn't played in over 6 months after moving away from Versus Gaming and becoming a father to a lovely little girl. We were not expecting much out of his play after the layoff, but he is an EVB family member and he needed a break just as much as the team would be excited to see him. The team was super hype when they finally realized who just walked into the room. Just as we had hoped, Viking brought the good feels to the team.
Evilette and I headed back upstairs and stopped by our teams casuals room and saw that there was some serious MKX going on. I considered playing a bit, but this crew would surely body me in every which way. We called it a night and told the team we would see them in the AM. We could only hope that they did find time to rest before tomorrows pools!
We woke up early enough to hit the closest WaWa for some much needed coffee and bagels. Evilette and I made note that all majors should be required to be located next to a WaWa. I mean, you can only eat so much of that fancy hotel food before you crave something that is truly bad for you and costs 1/10th as much! Food options at a venue surely are a plus in our book. WaWa coffee is like Sonic Fox is to MKX, unbeatable.
Shooting back to the venue we were please to see that our team look well rested and fresh. They were playing casuals in their room and warming up. Perfect! This should make for a successful day. Lets hope that it would translate to some top 8 appearances! We headed downstairs to check out the layout in the main room. It wasn't quite CEO, but it wasn't terrible either. The stage area wasn't as high as you would hope due to the low ceilings in the venue. This made it a little difficult to see the screen from the back of the room. The real problem came when the MKX pools started. There really wasn't much room to maneuver and we found ourselves sometimes walking around the entire room in order to get to a spot that may have been just a few steps the other way. As fast as this event is growing, BIG may need to look at a larger area to host it at. We managed to get settled in and located where all the pools matches would be. It was now time to bring the EVB pain to the pools!
We started out flat......our big guns didn't make it out of the first sets of pools. Big D, hampered by his injured hand, fell victim to death pool #4. (with the likes of Sacky, PL, and a host of others). DR couldn't find his groove and didn't survive his pool. Noobe, who has been playing his best as of late, struggled and was disappointed as well. We were surely disappointed for the group, but they were standing by the other team members offering help where they could. This is what we envisioned when we decided to sponsor a team. Members that support each other through thick and thin.
I was up next for the 2:00pm pools. The 2:00 pm pools that started at 1:45 pm. This wouldn't be the worst thing if they hadn't started making announcements about being disqualified if you were not there to play. A few times I saw entrants making it in just under the wire, narrowly avoiding forfeiture. You would think that a guy could not be disqualified from a 2:00pm pool at 1:55 pm, but it was happening. I should have taken the option of a DQ instead of putting on the horrible display of MKX Mileena that I did. I was torched buy a Jax player that was clearly worse then my sparring partners. I think I need to take a look at playing in the same events that we are sponsoring. It may just be too much to attempt to do both. Evilette seems right on this one!
We gained a little momentum for the latter part of the pools as Milky Situation, Vendetta, and Kitana Prime all advanced out of pools. DR Gross struggled to find his groove and lost to Slayer and Conflict. He was salty in the biggest way. This was the first time that he did not make it out of pools at a major. He also vowed it would be the last. Obamanatti was one win from making it out and was disappointed as well. He was happy that he finished ahead of his brother, Big D, and he was happy to tell him that the entire ride back to the airport.
During pools we were lucky enough to witness one of the biggest upsets in the history of the FGC, IMHO. CR Whiteboy vs Foxy Grandpa was the hypest of hype! Evilette seemed to know this was going to be epic and she decided to film most of the match. This is the footage that we all have watched time and time again. Thank you Evilette for capturing that momentous battle for all the masses to enjoy for years to come. Even though Whiteboy isn't a member of team EVB, he is one of the guys at the local scene that has worked side by side for the past year perfecting his skills at Versus Gaming in Florida. I can still feel the roar of the crowd when Jason hugs the last of life out of Kung Lao. Chants of USA, USA, as players clamored to congratulate Nick on his colossal win.
Please check back for part 2 of EVB Gaming's NEC Trip Report. Still lots of exciting stuff to be written about!
@Bizzle PB @YOMI FOREVER KING @YOMI SLAYER @EVB_VenDeTTa @Big D @Kitana Prime
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